Hunger
by Avatard.2112
Summary: Hunger. You can't live with it, but you will die without it. Aang has always wanted Katara and struggled from the effects of his insatiable thirst. But when Katara finally reflects his own hunger things get... interesting. Two-shot. Kataang.


**_OK. Long time no see. :) It seems my writing skills have gone to poo and this was the only intelligible thing that I could spit out of my brain. Yea. So that is my excuse... anyways if you do force your eyeballs to read the whole thing you will come to the realization that it wasn't finished. CONGRATS. You figured out that this is in fact a TWO-SHOT. So no hate._**

**_Oh btw, if you have read my stuff before, you will realize that this story is a bit different... I will explain more on the second half... if you are willing to come back. _**

Hunger.

Everyone has it. Everyone yearns for something that is just out of reach. They pour everything into the emotion, whether they know it or not. Some focus that hunger on possessions, reason or even power. But the most prosperous people choose to covet others. Instead of looking for the 'what?', they look for the 'who?'.

But if that hunger is not properly fueled, it can turn into something evil and malicious. Instead of guiding someone like a gentle stream, it rages with torrents which can bury someone in white waves of distraught if they are not careful.

The starvation will easily sink you into insanity.

At least that is what the monks had always told Aang.

So his whole life he had fought to vanquish that hunger rather than attempt to satiate it. If he was never given the opportunity to thirst, he would essentially never be parched. While he had struggled with the idea at first, it had been relatively easy to ignore the dull ache deep inside of him. And for twelve years, he lived mostly detached from the deadly cravings.

Sure, he snuck the occasional extra fruit pie, or read a set of scrolls that were forbidden from his young mind. For the most part, he was a perfect little monk who only aspired to live a simple life devoid of "insanity".

But then he woke up in _her _arms.

And suddenly he understood what real desire was.

It wasn't something you wanted. It was something you _needed_. Without it, he would surely shrivel into the shell of something monstrous. And it was always present, like a thorn buried deep in his skin. There was no peace in starving himself. The only relief was to eradicate the source, or simply fall into its influence.

So he let the hunger take him.

In the beginning he only needed to be close to her. Even just having her as a friend curbed the insistent stab begging to be indulged upon. For a long time, her words and friendship distracted him from the apparent evil that lied beneath.

And he was satisfied with that.

He was satisfied with sweet nothings and butterfly kisses. In fact, they were more than he could ask for. _She _was more than he could ask for.

But eventually the floor beneath him fell away once again, shortly after he turned fourteen. That once quelled hunger seemed to awaken with an angry vengeance. It consumed his being anytime she was near him.

Everytime she walked in the room, his skin would throb at the prospect of just touching her. Flames would lick at his stomach and gradually consume him if he didn't get away fast enough. His body seemed to become volatile at the simple mention of her name.

And her voice no longer brought the same comfort as before. Instead her silvery pitch would send him into fits of trembling and he would barely be able to flee with his dignity intact.

Dignity was one of the first things to go when hunger consumed your life.

Worst of all, their sweet kisses seemed to become the central battlefield of his raging hormones.

The first time he had kissed her with the new hunger, he had lost complete control. The moment their skin touched, he had melted into her like a candle left in the sun. She seemed to pull his essence into her and like an idiot he let her siren songs lure him to his certain death.

As he pushed further into the kiss, his body followed. Unfortunately he realized too late that his body had quickly formed ideas that had not even appeared in his mind. Yet. They might have appeared sometime later, but anytime he was touching her, his brain was a pile of worthless mush.

With a powerful gust of wind, he had shot across the room, and scrambled in vain to his bedroom before she could get a chance to mock his foolish hormones.

Unfortunately his airbending could do nothing to block out the sound of her soft giggle as he retreated. The sting of it had felt like salt on his fresh wound of embarrassment. Sure, he could have admitted right then and there that it wasn't his fault.

It was the hunger that everyone had warned him about. Somehow it had caused his... reaction.

But rather than face Katara with cheeks aflame, he instead hid out in his quarters until the sun had sunk beneath the horizon. Her gentle knock had tapped on his door multiple times during his solitude, but he had simply curled deeper into the corner anytime it echoed around him. He knew she was worried, and she probably felt guilty for laughing, but he just couldn't bring himself to leave his safe little corner.

It was at that moment in time that he decided what must be done.

It really wasn't his fault that he had...well… gotten excited. After all, he was a teenage boy. And it wasn't her fault for laughing. He would probably laugh at this moments years down the road, too.

But it was his fault for letting his hunger go haywire.

If one thing was clear, it was that he needed to somehow put a leash on the animal inside of him until he figured out what must be done. So with that conclusion, he started the process to a more controlled hunger.

For the next few weeks, he refrained from really touching Katara. Just the slightest brush of hand could ruin all of his progress, and at first, the absence was unbearably painful. But he just kept reminding himself that this was the best way.

Eventually the sharp slices of hunger turned into more manageable punches in the stomach. It still hurt like crazy, but he felt like the "fasting" had somehow given him a sense of power over the urges. With that small bit of hope, he gradually allowed himself to feast upon his desire once more.

Over the years he eventually gained a small sense of normalcy between them. He could kiss her without losing control of himself and his thoughts weren't quite as jumbled as the used to be.

Yet despite all his efforts, that deep insatiable hunger was still there and it still begged to be released from the meager cage he had built around it. Every once in a while, he would feel it combating his rational thoughts… desperately clawing its way back into power. It wanted so much more than simple kisses. It wanted to devour.

At times, he felt hopeless to the relentless power of his addiction. Even with years of shoving it away, it still had the same power over him. But at least he could sometimes control it.

And like before, he was somewhat content with the outcome of the ongoing war inside of himself.

But as always, the world kept spinning and a new hunger developed.

Only this time the hunger was not his. It was Katara's.

At first he didn't understand. Their easy conversations suddenly transformed into awkward ordeals. Their silly looks across the room turned one sided. Their sweet little notes left around the house seemed to vanish into the air. And with all the new developments came a heavy dose of blushing.

She was like a poorly constructed explosive, firing off at the most random times. It brought back memories of their first kisses and how she had been so shy and tentative. Eventually she had regained her fiery persona in their early relationship, but despite his awkwardness, she had rarely blushed again.

Until now.

When her behavior initially changed, he had assumed the worst. Maybe she wanted to breakup, and she was trying to let him down easy. Or maybe he hadn't concealed the hunger as well as he thought. For a whole week he had been on edge due to his down spiraling thoughts.

It was so bad that he even confided in Sokka.

Of course that had been no help. If anything, it had fed the flames of paranoia.

But it wasn't until he started putting two and two together that he recognized the real conflict beneath the surface. Somehow he realized that those same forlorn looks were the same ones he had been directing in her direction for years. And the tension that tainted the air everytime he walked in strikingly resembled his struggle for control over the wicked lust.

And it made sense. As he had struggled with his personal conflicts, he had gradually been transforming from a boy to a man. He now stood half a head above her, and his limbs resembled real muscles rather than twigs. Even his high pitched voice had dropped into to something that could attract many fangirls. Puberty had treated him well, and obviously the fangirls weren't the only ones who noticed.

He had no doubt that she had always loved him, but now it was different. Instead of a harmless little boy, he was a full grown avatar.

She wanted him in entirely different ways now. That much was obvious.

Now, he was a humble monk. He rarely gave a second thought to how people perceived his physical looks. He knew he wasn't perfect and he fully accepted that. But that didn't mean he was against being thirsted for.

In fact, it felt good to be on the receiving end of a hunger. Especially when that starving person was the girl of his dreams.

And with great confidence, comes great mistakes. He finally had the opportunity to turn the tables on Katara. Maybe the hunger really had corrupted his mind… or revenge was just too tasty… whatever the reason, he decided that it was worthy of being an incentive to his goals.

As soon as he came to the positive conclusion that Katara was indeed suffering from his own infliction, he concocted a scheme worthy of a punch from Toph. It was purely evil, despite the perfect morals that he had lived by. He would most likely regret it later, yet he was willing to chance fate for once.

Besides, if there was a casualty, it would just be him. And he would no doubt deserve whatever was coming when the whole thing was done…

So with his morals set aside, he initiated his grand plan.

**EHEHEHE WHAT COULD IT POSSIBLY BE? Jk its pretty obvious sooo... :) Yea. I'm just gonna stop talking now... Read and review. Because that is super kewl.**


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